SynthesisJournal of substance abuse treatment2019
Effectiveness of medication assisted treatment for opioid use in prison and jail settings: A meta-analysis and systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of substance abuse treatment, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
104 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 203 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drug use among people in prison: A global review of epidemiology, harms and interventions.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Substance Misuse Treatment Processes and Outcomes as Implemented in Prisons for Men in the UK.Criminal behaviour and mental health : CBMH · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions to reduce harms related to drug use among people who experience incarceration: systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Public health · 2024Pooled it
- Applications of Immersive Virtual Reality for Illicit Substance Use: A Systematic Review.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2024Pooled it
- Impact of harm minimization interventions on reducing blood-borne infection transmission and some injecting behaviors among people who inject drugs: an overview and evidence gap mapping.Addiction science & clinical practice · 2024Pooled it
- A call to action: Contingency management to improve post-release treatment engagement among people with opioid use disorder who are incarcerated.Preventive medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Stimulant abuse as a coping strategy-Forensic and criminal consequences of stimulant abuse for neuroenhancement.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Opioid-related treatment, interventions, and outcomes among incarcerated persons: A systematic review.PLoS medicine · 2019Pooled it
- The impact of the communities that HEAL intervention on the provision of jail-based medication for opioid use disorder & linkage programs at release: Results from a randomized, wait-list controlled trial.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2026Trial
- Outcomes following two models of treatment linkage facilitation for women with a history of OUD following jail release.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Trial
- Assessing the comparative effectiveness of ECHO and coaching implementation strategies in a jail/provider MOUD implementation trial.Implementation science : IS · 2025Trial
- Treatment satisfaction and patient reported outcomes among people with opioid use disorder participating in an open-label, non-randomised trial of long-acting injectable buprenorphine treatment in Australian custodial settings.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Trial
- Examining use of telehealth in jails: linking women to community OUD services.BMC women's health · 2024Trial
- Treatment Initiation, Substance Use Trajectories, and the Social Determinants of Health in Persons Living With HIV Seeking Medication for Opioid Use Disorder.Substance abuse · 2023Trial
- Comparison of Treatment Retention of Adults With Opioid Addiction Managed With Extended-Release Buprenorphine vs Daily Sublingual Buprenorphine-Naloxone at Time of Release From Jail.JAMA network open · 2021Trial
- Randomized trial of methadone treatment of arrestees: 24-month post-release outcomes.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Methadone treatment of arrestees: A randomized clinical trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2020Trial
- Preparing Emergency Medical Services for Prehospital Buprenorphine: Examining a Train-the-Trainer Approach to Strengthening the Overdose Chain of Survival.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2026Article
- Buprenorphine Oral Lyophilisate for Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: Pharmacology and Clinical Efficacy.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This study examined the state of the literature on the effectiveness of medication assisted treatment (MAT; methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone) delivered in prisons and jails on community substance use treatment engagement, opioid use, recidivism, and health risk behaviors following release from incarceration. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies published through December 2017 that examined induction to or maintenance on methadone (n = 18 studies), buprenorphine (n = 3 studies), or naltrexone (n = 3 studies) in correctional settings were identified from PsycINFO and PubMed databases. There were a sufficient number of methadone RCTs to meta-analyze; there were too few buprenorphine or naltrexone studies. All quasi-experimental studies were systematically reviewed. Data from RCTs involving 807 inmates (treatment n = 407, control n = 400) showed that methadone provided during incarceration increased community treatment engagement (n = 3 studies; OR = 8.69, 95% CI = 2.46; 30.75), reduced illicit opioid use (n = 4 studies; OR = 0.22, 95% CI = 0.15; 0.32) and injection drug use (n = 3 studies; OR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.12; 0.56), but did not reduce recidivism (n = 4 studies; OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.51; 1.68). Data from observational studies of methadone showed consistent findings. Individual review of buprenorphine and naltrexone studies showed these medications were either superior to methadone or to placebo, or were as effective as methadone in reducing illicit opioid use post-release. Results provide the first meta-analytic summary of MATs delivered in correctional settings and support the use of MATs, especially with regard to community substance use treatment engagement and opioid use; additional work is needed to understand the reduction of recidivism and other health risk behaviors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.